Carbonic anhydrases (CAs, EC 4.2.1.1) were purified from sheep kidney (sCA IV), from the liver of the teleost fish Dicentrarchus labrax (dCA) and from human erythrocytes (hCA I and hCA II). The purification procedure consisted of a single step affinity chromatography on Sepharose 4B-tyrosine-sulfanilamide. The kinetic parameters of these enzymes were determined for their esterase activity with 4-nitrophenyl acetate as substrate. The following metal ions, Pb2+, Co2+, Hg2+, Cd2+, Zn2+, Se2+, Cu2+, Al3+ and Mn3+ showed inhibitory effects on these enzymes. The tested metal ions inhibited these CAs competitively in the low milimolar/submillimolar range. The susceptibility to various cations inhibitors differs significantly between these vertebrate ?-CAs and is probably due to their binding to His64 or the histidine cluster
